I always 
wanted to read this one. I knew it was a good book, but it was too fat and I was bit scared of it. But once I started reading, I found it too difficult to keep it down. Not even a single page out of 900 plus pages, I found book boring or going off the track. Every line of book seems to be very special and I am amazed how one can write with such immaculate clarity of thoughts. This is a gem of a book which I felt should never end.A true reflection of human spirit, emotions, and relationships…life.
The story is about an Australian revolutionary who gets addictive to heroin after is failed marriage and become a armed robber. He escapes from the prison in Australia and somehow lands in Mumbai. He meets Prabhakar a local guide with a big smile, beautiful karala, best friend didler, abdula, and philosopher father figure abdul khader khan. He learns to speak hindi, marathi and falls in love with city, the people and ofcourse Karla. He stays in a remote village in maharastra near jalgoan with prabhaker for six months, where he is give a name Shantaram.He stays in slums of Mumbai where people misunderstand him as a doctor. They call him linbaba, name given by prabhakar. He then joins Mumbai underworld and engages himself in underworld activities like passport counter fittings, gold smugglings, works for friends in bollywood and eventually goes in war in Afghanistan along with his philosopher friend. The story is about a journey of a man who has too much anger within him and how his experiences, people and city transforms him to a different human being, who has lot of love in his heart for everybody.
This is a gem of a book, and is must read. Through 900 pages I accompanied linbaba in his journey of life and enjoyed every bit of it.
Some of the lines from book which mesmerized me are
Every moment in life is a short story with a happy ending.
Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities.
When we fall in love with someone our greatest fear is that they wont love us back, what we should fear instead is that we won't stop loving them...
If fate does not make you laugh then you just don't get the joke.
Luck is what happens to people when fate gets tired of waiting.
people always hurt us with their trust....the surest way to hurt someone u like, is to put all ur trust in him...
i love her still so much,so hard with all heart or no heart at all.
...the land where the heart is king – that held me when so many intuitions told me I should leave. And the heart, for me, was the city. Bombay. The city had seduced me. I was in love with her. There was a part of me that she invented, and that only existed because I lived there, within her, as a Mumbaiker, a Bombayite
There are three things no Indian man can resist: a beautiful face, a beautiful song, and an invitation to dance...
wanted to read this one. I knew it was a good book, but it was too fat and I was bit scared of it. But once I started reading, I found it too difficult to keep it down. Not even a single page out of 900 plus pages, I found book boring or going off the track. Every line of book seems to be very special and I am amazed how one can write with such immaculate clarity of thoughts. This is a gem of a book which I felt should never end.A true reflection of human spirit, emotions, and relationships…life. 